Tavani has to execute Leopard Law again

Frank Tavani isn’t going to win any special accolades for the coaching job he has done this season at Lafayette. Those kinds of things invariably go to guys whose teams win championships or over-achieve in some impressive fashion.

But if there was an award given for the coach with the most principle, Tavani’s name would be right at the top of my list of candidates.

I thought it was rough for him last year when he had to take significant action against three players before the start of the season, and later, he had to take even stricter action against a couple of them because of repeated violations of team rules.

It was so bad that he drafted a document known now as Leopard Law. I guess he figured that by requiring his players to sign off on the document and all that is in it, and by sending copies of the signed documents to parents so they, too, understood what their sons agreed to, he was taking a proactive position.

That has not happened. Instead, it seems that some players – Frank continues to refer to them as “young men” even though some of their actions have been juvenile, to say the least – continue to insist on pushing the envelope.

This time it was failure to adhere to the team curfew on Friday night in the hotel in which the Leopards stayed prior to Saturday’s game with Fordham. Four players were involved – two who left their room and went to another and the two from the other room.

Thee of the players are seniors, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this season about how the small senior class – only 14 strong – has dedicated itself to leaving the Lafayette program as they found it and how they were willing to do whatever it took to turn around a program that won only six of 22 games in their sophomore and junior seasons.

Instead, Coach Tavani had to take a good piece of his postgame press conference on Saturday to address an issue that never should have happened, and the fact that seniors were involved is where the embarrassment came in for me.

I don’t know how many times Coach Tavani has reminded us in the media about the slogan players and coaches wear on a wristband – FAST, meaning Family Always Stays Together. I know he took it seriously, but I have to wonder about at least a small element of the team.

Did they think that a guy who didn’t flinch at the prospect of suspending his starting quarterback – and relieving him of his captaincy to boot – would turn his head the other way because their transgressions may not have been as egregious as those of the star player?

Wrong!

Hey, in the grand scheme of things, what’s all the fuss about a curfew, especially when it is imposed on players who may have already reached their 21st birthday? Is that what you think? You don’tknow Frank Tavani as well as you thought you did.

“We have rules and regulations and my job is to enforce those things,” Tavani said after the 36-27 loss to the Rams. “I can’t just overlook it. There were some people that said, ‘Well, just let it go.’ Let it go? You can’t let it go and I’ll never let it go. I’ll stop coaching before I’ll let rules and regulations go by. That’s not who were are and how I run this organization. That’s just the way it is.”

The hardest thing for Tavani on Saturday probably was not sitting any players, but rather in actually playing one.

But because of an injury to a starter, and “because I was down to one guy who hasn’t even taken any reps there, so for the sake of the football team, I put him (one of the suspended players) in,” Tavani said.

Of course, the worst thing about this or any other disciplinary situation that has befallen the Lafayette program this year – or last, for that matter – is that a large majority of players who are really serious about the image of Lafayette football are dragged through the same mud puddle with those who have chosen to put themselves above the law.

As I said earlier this season, I do not have a copy of Leopard Law, but I spoke about the document with Tavani. It’s pretty basic stuff, from the three no-tolerance issues (drug and alcohol abuse, cutting class without a valid excuse and stealing) to lesser offenses that fall under a three-strikes procedure.

Lafayette has seen a promising 2012 season continue to slip away to the place where the Leopards are in very real danger of finishing a third consecutive losing season. Only a Lehigh team that will be fired up after losing its league championship game on Saturday remains.

Tavani doesn’t need the distraction that things like this bring with them, and the players who carry the pride, purpose and passion of Lafayette football with them wherever they go deserve better, too.

Tavani will continue to have the back of every player who shares his commitment, and he will not let this or any other thorny issue go unresolved.

Apologies will probably be in order. I’d hate to think any Lafayette senior would want to be denied his chance to take one more shot at Lehigh.

I doubt that the curfew infraction would call for that; but if Tavani feels it does, I don’t think he’s going to let any one player slide. His reputation is on the line there, and he has made it perfectly clear where he stands.

I stand there with him. These are supposed to be intelligent young men. Prove it, guys.

NOTE: I just read my story in the print edition and noticed that I gave Leopard QB Zach Zweizig a new first name. Sorry about that, Zach.